This invention pertains, generally, to the field of semiconductors and more specifically to the field of bond pads on semiconductors.
As the industry moves to replace aluminum with copper in semiconductor processing, enabling a copper wire bond to attach to copper bond pads is needed. One problem with copper bond pads is that when chemically mechanically polishing (CMP) them, dishing can occur. A solution is to form oxide slots in the copper bond pad to improve planarization. Oxide slots, however, make it difficult to contact the metal with the probe needle or wire bond reliably. Without slotting, not only is the CMP process more difficult, but also the probe needle can damage the pads so that the ability to wire bond is compromised. Therefore a need exists for a bond pad structure that allows for the existence of slotting and both wire bonding of copper wires to copper bond pads and probe needle contact reliability.